Willem Barentsz VS. The Polar Bears Fire - Episode 47

Hey all, 

It's a bit late, but Ed and Kara out Episode 47 out on thedaysdumpsterfire.com which involves the crazy stuff that goes on in the waters around the North Pole like lots and lots of tricky to deal with polar bears. In mid to late 1500s Dutch navigator and respected cartographer Willem Barentsz looked at how explorers were trying to get to India by sailing around Africa or sailing west only to hit the Americas, but Barentsz looked to the north of Europe and figured he could close the gap by simply sailing through the North Pole waters. 

While on a paper map it looks like a great idea, but in a very real spherical world that doesn't work out so well. Nothing behaves as it should. Ice has a mind of it's own, polar bears are shockingly hard to deal with, the cold makes everything made of metal super weak, and it's not uncommon for your ship to get stuck for months on end. 

So come join Ed and Kara as they discuss the early days of human exploration of the oceans where Murphy's Law says, "Hold my beer and watch this..." as Barentsz and crew set out to redefine maritime navigation. 

Be sure to check the website thedaysdumpsterfire.com for show notes, Kara's famous drawings and feel free to drop a line to thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com!

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, everybody. This is Ed

Kara: 0:01

In this era and this is your days. Dumpster fire. where we don't celebrate humanity's successes. But as the most fantastic failures, it's most fantastic failures. You know, one of these days I got to sit down and rerecord that little intro and get it so that when I click on it, there's not like a 37 second wait for it to start. But yay, editing. But we it'll be one of those things where like after ten years of doing the podcast, I finally get around to it. Yeah, it's But like back burner tasks. yeah, yeah, True. because they're taking the 5 minutes to just bring it the file, shorten it to start when I click on it and then re uploading it. Who has that kind of time? Nobody. I don't. Yeah, it's like who can, who can ever take the time to do a five minute job and save yourself a lot of headache down the road. But I have video games to play and art to make. yes. Yeah. And, and and if you just heard Cara's got art to make, she just finished probably one of the most epic drawings of George Custer Yeah, it came out pretty cool. that. Yeah. It's, it, it's, it's pretty sick. And I encourage everybody to go to the day's tons of fireworks com she's going to be uploading a lot of her artwork to the website because yeah it's going to reference a uh a episode of the show and what was it that was episodes. Um, let's see here. Yeah. 1011 and 12. So yeah, you're going to see Custer on there if you want to know what the heck we're talking about, go back to the days Dumpster fire episodes ten, 11 and 12. It's a three parter. It's a pretty epic show of just the one of the worst American defeats and American history. And so, yeah, we'll go go check that out. We'll we'll follow up with that at the end of the show. But yeah, some of her stuff out there is just spot on, too, the theme of the show. So I'm kind of I'm kind of curious to see what you're going to come up with the last episode, which was like morning sickness and Nazis. Yeah, I haven't thought of that yet. I sketched up a Queen Elizabeth today, though, so. Okay, so I don't know. I don't know about the morning. Maybe somebody puking in a toilet. I don't know. yeah, with like all these Nazis, like, looming over, like, That sounds like really bad propaganda. Yeah, I know it I don't know sounds about that. some sort of traumatizing Yeah, than anything. it does. So I got a question for you, and I probably know the answer because like, you just kind of go with the flow and you're very Zen, like, you're very, uh, was it Bruce Lee? You're like water. Yeah. My guy. You just kind of just, just move around. Yeah, But I just go I got with it. to. Yeah, yeah. And so, like, here is the question and if you're in the audience has an idea on what the answer to this is, feel free to send us an email. The day Chime seems to fire in. the podcast like you're we talk a lot about well historical dumpster fires, but I kind of want to go into the direction too, of incorporating the listener, incorporating the audience, and try to make this story of an epic disaster apply to your lives. And so, like when you have this happen to you, you have your own trash can fire, you can be like, Hey, at least it's not as bad as this or I didn't mess up as much as Winston Churchill did, or I'm still alive versus Custer, who is no longer alive, kind of a thing. So we kind of want to I kind of want to engineer so that you as the listener can get something from it. So the question is, is have you ever tried to, like, take on a project or achieve a goal or try to accomplish something and you are like, you're gung ho, like you are fully willing to commit whatever resources you have in your life to achieving this task, only to find out later on that this task was virtually impossible or it was impractical from the beginning. That's good because, you know, we were talking about this before. You're like, no, You know, it's funny. I do have something that I just thought about. I'm like, I can't think of anything. My mind went blank, but it just popped in my head and I will I can or. tell you right now it is minuscule compared to this, Yeah, but yeah. it's one Because like, we're not going to talk about a dumpster fire where like, there's a cat stuck in a tree like that one. It be very exciting. Unless it resulted in like half the town burning down then, then it then it's good content. But or the city of Chicago. yeah, or But like Chicago burning down like, yeah, that's another episode. Go check that one out. Um, so what I want to go into is, is Willem Brent's. So, yeah, I want to talk about Willem? I think it's supposed to be William, but he's Dutch, so we're going to go with Willem, and I'm just going to just American English butcher it. perfect. So, yeah, we're going to, we're going to talk about this guy, and he's kind of a little known figure, unless you are really, really, really involved in Arctic Circle, 15/16 century exploration. That's very nice. yeah, if that's your thing, then you will have heard of this guy. If you have chosen to, like, lead a normal life of happiness and fulfillment, you probably passed over this in your history class and moved on. But Yeah, that's that's a fair yeah, statement. and this, this whole story is actually coming to you from one of our audience members, Nathaniel. He has been he's brought this up to me numerous times, like, Hey, you really need to check this out. It's it's a pretty good story. It's a good story where, like, everything goes wrong and this Willem Barents guy is trying to like, figure out everything to make this whole Northeast Passage thing work and it just blows up we got to go back in time to a couple of billion years after the Big Bang, So maybe, maybe a couple of billion years after the formation of the solar system, like 4.7 billion years and Mm hmm. maybe we go back to the 15th century. Cool. So I'm here for it. the first century is the age of exploration, right? All caps. Technology has, come to the forefront where now Europeans are able to explore the world. And I'm specifying Europeans because there's a lot of cases in history where there has been other cultures in other parts of the world, like navigating like the Polynesians, navigating thousands of miles of ocean on little boats and colonizing the Pacific, Tis true, yeah, it's pretty insane what humanity has done in the past. So the 15th century and 16th century, technology is getting to the point where now Europeans can start crossing the Atlantic and they can start trading all over the place. So the other big thing that came about was keeping Mm. time. You may not think about it, but being able to tell accurate or keeping accurate time is the only way you can sail east and west. I actually learned that today while I was drawing my Queen Elizabeth drawing. Yes. I know So that like, sounds don't off, go. but I know it sounds really weird, but you can go north and south and you can use the North Star, right? The further south you go, the lower the North Star will get to the horizon. And then the further north you go, the higher up the North Star will go. And you can measure that angle and you can figure out kind of where you're at, north and south. But east and west, it doesn't work so well. And what it is, is you got to be able to keep track, accurate track of time. So like, okay, 10:00, we need to take this recording of where the star is in the sky, right? And then tomorrow night we got to take a recording of where the star is in the sky. And that is like your candle light. That is where you compare each night where this star is at the same exact time. And you factor in some other things like the time of year and all that kind of stuff. But then you can figure out where you're going east and west because that star, as you travel around the globe, will move ever so slightly depending on the direction that you're going in. So like keeping track of time was a massive, massive achievement for navigation. The other thing too, is maps and maps are becoming more commonplace as the demand for cartographers was exploding. So let's say you couldn't hack it as an artist somewhere. Well, you could go on a cartography and you can really get your name out there as as a mapmaker and make really good money on this. that's what John The White other. did. Yeah. Uh. Amerigo Vespucci Um, I know he did a lot with maps. Uh, a guy by the name of Diaz, his name is, is escaping me right now, but it'll come up like, Hey, whatever you got to do to make a living as a sailor, Um, yeah, make maps. And I love maps from this time period because they always have, like, all these sea monsters all over the map. Oh, yeah. There's so, like, awesomely decorated. Yeah, and I think they did that for artwork, but in the ocean, a lot of weird things happen. Like boats sink in. Like what? Sink the boat? We don't know. It's got to be a cracking. That's fair. as exploration expanded, uh, consumers, mainly rich white Europeans, they wanted more and more exotic goods. So as they got richer, they wanted more expensive things. Perfect. Case in point. Pepper. Like ground pepper that we use on everything here in America was considered one of the most expensive spices in the world because it only came from the Americas. And it could only bring back so much of it. Cinnamon, too, I think. Uh, yeah. Cinnamon was one of them. And then, you know, then there is like, you know, turmeric getting that Mm from hmm. India and all that kind of stuff. It's Yeah. just, yeah, it's wild. You never think about the stuff that you can go to the grocery store for a few dollars and buy was once relegated only to the ultra rich and wealthy. And these rich people, they would pay people to go out and basically like Uber eats their ingredients, Mm hmm. right? These monarchs, they would pay for ships to go across the world to go pick up some like tomatoes and bring them back. Yeah. It's just a really long, expensive Uber eats order. And you would pay strangers to arrive at your doorstep and bring some fancy animal. So the and possibly the biggest market at this time is Asia. And the connection to Asia has been huge because it goes all the way back to like to basically the fall of the Roman Empire, like in the golden Even age for, even before I believe the Romans traded with the Asian people as well. I thought that was more like India, or am I thinking of like Alexander the Great? You might be thinking Alexander the Great. I could also be off by a little bit. I'm trying to Okay, remember when the Silk Road was established. I might be okay. off a little Yeah. bit I thought, yeah, I thought the Silk Road was closer to like the golden age of Islam because they were working a lot with Asia. If you find the correct answer, interrupt me, let me know. Um, but yeah, for the longest Oh, time, the, the, the connection to Asia, especially China, was huge. And at this time there like four different ways to, to get to Asia and the most commonly used method was on land. Just hitch up a bunch of horses oxen, humans wagons, load them up and then start walking out east. And this was probably the most common one. Like whatever beast of burden you could find, you know, slap some stuff on it that you want to sell to the Asians and start walking. There's 6 to 7000 miles. yeah, You know what could possibly go wrong in 6 to 7000 miles, right. especially when you could walk maybe 20 miles a day, Yeah. depending. And that means it would take 300 to 350 days just to get to Asia. Yeah, So it's like a year to get there. And it took almost two years to make a round trip. So you're like, Hey, I want some of this fancy Chinese silk. All right, cool. It'll be a two year wait. yeah. It'll be a two year wait. It's also very expensive because livestock is expensive. And then that's also why traders were. If you see it, you see it a lot in movies and stuff. But it is it is somewhat accurate where townspeople or villagers get super excited when the tradesmen come through. That's Mm why hmm. they only see them maybe once a year, couple of times a year, depending on what their rotation is, because it takes so long to get back. And I imagine to like when it first started, you know, you maybe see, like, one traveling salesman a year. I do not like we get into the 15, 1600s. There were so many caravans going back and forth, like they would set up many trading spots along the way so that you didn't have to go all the way into China to get silk. You could go half the way in, meet somebody, buy some silk and then bring it back. You're going to pay more for it because half the transit is knocked off that. But Yeah. there was like all these trading posts set up and for the most part, it was relatively safe because of the Mongols. They they were heavily interested in trading with Europeans. But when we start getting in to the 15th and 16th centuries, the Mongols were kind of losing their grip on things. And as a result, it was becoming more and more dangerous because unlike the Ottoman Turks, they were coming into power. The Venetians controlled the whole Mediterranean area. Like either you had to pay a ton of money to get through there or you had to fight your way through it and hope you didn't get assaulted on the way or whatever. that was like that was one way. The other way was to hop on a boat and then sail around Africa and then pop out on the other side towards like India and all that kind of stuff. So. Bartolomeu Dias, that was a guy I was referring to earlier. I forgot the first name was the first to sail around Africa in 1488, and it took him 15 months just to get down there. Yup. Like just, yeah, it's crazy Wild. and a lot of how to do it. These ships back then were so janky Wild. Oh, also, and then, just to interrupt, because you asked Oh me yeah. to roam did trade with Asia through Mm. the Silk Road, through India. And there is some signs of like Roman coins and stuff in China. Okay, So yeah, it's funny that. cool. Yeah, So yep, I was wrong, that's okay. It's like a weird, obscure thing. you know, as a very weird and obscure thing for me to be wrong about anything, it's Exactly. so. Yeah. Vasco da Gama in 1498 was the first to sail around Africa. The, uh, the Cape of Good Hope, which is an insanely dangerous place to try to sail through many, many a dumpster. Fires could be recorded down there to It's an ironic, reach India. ironic Yeah, name. Yeah, It's I good know. I think they did that on purpose. Like, God, I okay. have good humor about it. I guess. Yeah, it's a good hope. Let's hope the God you make it because Hope for the best. yeah, the further down south you go around there man, it is wild. By the late 1500s this was the best means to getting into Asia. So that was like what Europe had to work with. However, though, that became kind of dangerous because obviously you got the Cape, but you're also subject to bad weather. You were susceptible to disease because if one person has the flu on the ship, everybody is getting the flu on the ship and like that can lay out, if not kill like a good portion of your crew. And then there was also like pirates. Pirates are starting to make their presence known around the world. Then there was the idea of heading out west till you hit Asia. And this is probably the most famous one. Like, you know, Columbus did not set out to prove the world was around. That's that's a lie. Most people knew that the world was around. Unless you were, like, the most ignorant of ignorant people. And he didn't set out to find the Americas. His mission was to set out to find a quicker way to get to India. And he thought he landed in India because he landed and it was basically what like South America Yeah. was closer to South America, like the Caribbean. Yeah, it was. It was around that area. Yeah, it definitely wasn't like Massachusetts. No. Like, yeah, it wasn't that far north. but the the path out west is probably the most famous one because, you know, like Columbus, Columbus landed in, like, South America, Central America, slash, uh, the Caribbean. He saw dark skinned people there. And these are cool. These look like Indians. We've made it to India. And then very quickly discovered this was in India. And, you know, the rest is history. It made Yeah. it back and yes, Yeah. yeah, we know all that stuff. So, um, it worked out well because, like, here we are, Yeah, you know, it's one of those things it's like cool, like America formed and that's an interesting piece of history. But again, if you're sailing out West trying to find a quicker way to get to India, it just wasn't going to work that. Yeah. That that, wasn't it. other way that you could go was to sail north, so you could walk out east, you could sell down south, you can sail out west or you could head north. And the idea would be to like leave Norway or Finland or, you know, Britain, whatever coastline had access to the north. And you basically sail through the Arctic Circle and land in northern parts of Asia or Siberia. And this was most famously called the Northeast Passage or the Trans Polar Sea route. the idea was instead of going east and west for a really, really long period of time, what would happen if you just went north? Because it would have to be quicker to change hemispheres instead of going east and west just to go north, because you're technically what you're trying to do is you're trying to get from one point in the northern hemisphere to another point in the northern hemisphere. instead of going in half the width of the earth to get to the opposite end, why not to go north and see what happens? And Okay, a lot of it has to do with the fact that, like, you know, by the time the Harlem Barons came about, like it was commonly known, like, okay, this is how big Earth is, they're starting to develop an idea of the relationship to continents in between other countries and continents. Like they're starting to get an idea of what Earth looked like, especially when you factor in that whole American South American continent. And I mean, obviously they were still way off on a lot of things, but they were kind of coming up with some logical ideas, like it's quicker if we just sail north rather than sailing, you know, all the way down south. But what's funny is that if you sailed north, you're going to go by Siberia. You're going to kind of like hit Mongolia, and then you have to go down south and, you know, go past Japan. You have to go around China, you have to go around Korea, Vietnam, and to get to India and whatnot. And that trip was closer to 18,000 miles. finding the Northeast passage wasn't going to do much good because it's impossibly further away than everything else. The advantage is that when you are sailing up to the north, when you typically have the winds working for you, right, it there's the North Pole. Everything is billowy up there. And these sailing ships could just go forever this way as opposed to like heading down south Africa. You had to time it with the year. Where is that Gulf Coast wind? Where is that going? Where is the which way is the Atlantic working at this time? And there would be times where you're just sitting in the middle of the ocean for like two weeks waiting for a puff of wind. well, that's a silver lining. yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's super far away. But they had no idea at that time, Yeah. like they were completely oblivious to it. that brings us to William Prince and his dream. And William Barents is going to be the, uh, the hero of this story, I guess Our hero. main character. Your main character, the one that gets stuck in the dumpster fire, so to speak. Much like when we did Terra Nova. Uh, we're talking about explorers here. And these explorers were very competitive, but they were also very respectful towards each other. And Barents, even though this was hundreds of years before we are dealing with Antarctica and whatnot. Well, with William Barents was was a pretty respected guy. He was born in modern day Netherlands and 1550 died on June 20th, 1597. So he had a good 47 year run and he's considered like the first or the earliest Arctic explorer in human history. Funny thing is, his birth name was Bear Zum, Mm hmm. which I think that's kind of a funny name. Yeah, That's fun. And, and well, yeah. And he knew that. He knew that it was kind of weird. So he just he just changed at the Barents. I mean, I get it. Yeah, right. If he had a goofy name, Yeah. that's just a long signature. If you've ever seen meet the parents, you know, change Yeah. it to from Gaylord to Greg. I understand. Yes. Yeah, I totally get it, too. Especially if you have to sign a lot of paperwork. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Though Nathaniel did show me a signature from a salton from the Ottoman Empire or whatever, and that. That was a signature. We Yeah, were both staring at it. Like, how? Anyway, that's off topic. yeah, yeah. So he shortened it to basically translated Barents Sun. So it's B, r, e, and T, s, Z? Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Kind of like how the Scandinavians would do something very similar. Sigurdsson Yeah. That type of thing. Yep. And so by trade he was a cartographer or a mapmaker and he was a mapmaker in the height of the age of exploration. And cartographers were in very high demand. He literally put his name on the map when he sailed to Spain and subsequently the Mediterranean Sea to compile an atlas of the region with another guy by the name of Petrus Pontius. That's funny to. Yes. And Petrus, he's he's had his name in history as well. Like he's a pretty well known figure in the age of exploration. So like him and this Petrus guy, they co-authored an atlas that became really popular because people were exploring the Mediterranean Sea left and right and Barents was, you know, he was considered a very competent sailor, a gifted explorer by his government and many of his peers in Europe. So once Barents established his reputation or his respectable reputation, he turned his sights to figuring out the Northeast Passage. And from a geopolitical perspective, since his homeland of the Netherlands was pretty much as north as Europe gets, other than like Norway and Finland and stuff like that. But we're talking like main body Europe. You could establish trade if you could establish trade with the Orient by sailing north, he could help put his country, his country, his reputation of being a major economic hub because everyone would want to sail through Netherlands waters and they can charge for that. They can make way for passing through Europe. You have to pay a fee and all that kind of stuff, and it would make it easier on them to get to and from. Barents was the perfect guy to explore the Arctic regions because of his mapmaking skills and his ability to lead men through pretty much anything. He was just like a natural leader. he also had a really intelligent theory that I thought like, I can't fault his logic on it. he had an idea of how big Earth was, as most mapmakers would have had an idea that, hey, you know, we don't know the exact mileage like down to Google Earth stats, but we know that it's going to take, you know, six, 7000 miles to get to Asia and and all that kind of stuff. Like they had an idea of that. But he also knew where Europe set on the globe in relation to Asia. And because of this he knew that the further north you go a degree between longitude, those are your vertical lines, consumes less miles than, say a degree of longitude near the equator. So if you look at those long two lines, those North-South lines, and we'll have pictures and now in the show notes and the website, but you'll see like how at the equator you looked at the longitude lines, the major ones, and they're pretty far apart. The further north you go, closer you get to the pole. You see like all those lines kind of converge into one spot. And if you're going say five degrees longitude up at the North Pole, that's going to go a lot further. You're going to cover, say, those five degrees or three degrees or whatever you're going to cover those degrees quicker up in the North Pole than you would if you're sailing on the equator, if that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. And that's the reason why we don't really use Miles, because Miles behave differently. The further north or south you go in relation to the equator. So they use a thing called nautical miles, which is more like a curved. That's a distance over a curve. Which earth being a sphere. Sorry, Flat-Earthers Earth is a sphere. Then you're, you're calculating a arc. Mm. And then to measure that, they would use a speed called knots. And what they would basically do is they have this really long rope and then they would tie knots in this rope at very specific increments and then at every so many markers or every so many minutes, they would chime a bell and then you would drop a part of this rope over and then you would time how long it would take for you to drop the next one over. And you would do that throughout the course of the day. And by the end of the day, you know how many knots you you've traveled. You can add that up over, say like 8 hours, you know it Cool. We're traveling so many knots per hour. That's that's where that term comes from. How to measure distances on a sailing ship is vastly different than how you do it on land, which people don't think about. But for for the sake of argument, we will just use Miles. No, I'm not going to confuse people, nautical miles and knots and all that kind of stuff. So going through the north in his mind is like when you're you're on a sailing ship, you're like, okay, we got to go so many degrees this way and then so many degrees that way. And then we get to angle to go 45 degrees at, you know, this, at this specific island and you live and breathe degrees. So if you go to a part where the degrees are closer together, it would make sense that you could cover more distance or more degrees where when the lines are super close to each other up in the north or the South Pole. he had that idea. And he also knew that the further north you go, the winters, the, the like, more parts of the year, the North Pole has 24 hours sunlight, which which is true. Like you grow up into like northern parts of Alaska, like the sun never sets Yeah. I think they have like a crazy six months, six months schedule or something. yeah, it works like the same way in outer Antarctica. There are six months out of the year where it's dark Yeah. and or six months or yeah, six months out of the year where it is sunlight, like the sun never really sets. It just kind of goes in a weird circle throughout the sky. So he argued in I can I actually I can see his logic here. It makes a lot of sense. He's like, okay, if we go north and the sun is shining 24 seven because the sun are shining, there should be no ice. Right. Because in his mind, it's going to melt. Exactly. Yeah. It's a pretty sound way of thinking. I'm obviously we know like that's not the case. That's not how it works. It has more to do with the angle of the sun and how that affects the climate and whatnot. But I can totally see where he's coming from. Yeah. Especially if you're living in the late 1500s. That makes sense. Yeah. And you're taking these these super ghetto sailing ships, which were very heavy and they did not handle storms well. Let's just say. I think at this time there were more ships sunk in the age of exploration just because these boats were so top heavy and Oh, yeah. they're really or squashed like they were just dumb. Like I you look at them, they look really comical. They look like something you'd see out of a cartoon. remember John. Remember how he got stuck in Roanoke and then went back Yeah. and then went back again, and then his ship crashed when he got Yes. home? Yeah. Sign Sign Yeah. They they weren't the most reliable, especially when you compare it to, say, like 1820s Britain. Like those sailing ships. Those things were well, I mean, they were the pinnacle of sailing technology at that time. And yeah, they're still around to this day and those things are just gorgeous pieces of engineering. Meanwhile, these age exploration ships, they were like two decks and you try to pack as much crap in there as possible and hope you don't get bad weather, it. which is kind of one of the reasons why Barents wanted to go to go through the north is because like, okay, one, nobody's really been there yet. Like, believe it or not, nobody has really traveled to the poles yet. Like Antarctica wasn't even a thing until the 1820s. Yeah. Like maybe even still it was like, Oh, I see some weird white landmass off the distance. That's got to be Antarctica. Cool. So we find new land. Sure. Okay, let's go to put a flag on it and go back to what we were doing before and nobody really cared. The same thing applied to the North Pole. Like nobody really investigated it until like the 18 and 1900s, which, you know, that's a whole different story unto itself. We have a two parter on the Terra Nova expedition in Antarctica about that. We'll link to it in the show notes. Isn't it nice that we finally got enough episodes where we can start linking other previous episodes in the current episode that we're talking about? Oh, yeah. It's a joy. Yeah, like we can actually hey, listen to these four other podcast episodes that we've done that's kind of tied into this. It's it's a nice feeling to be enough where we can actually reference ourselves as a source. Like it's pretty cool It's true. and we don't and we like shamelessly cite ourselves whenever we get to do that, like check out our show. We did an episode on this, did an episode on that. But uh, yeah, so like the idea of going through the poles, it's like, you know, the weather can't be that bad, right? It's just cold. Maybe a little windy, but hey, there should be no no ice up there. There should be no icebergs. There shouldn't be anything that we would crash into or freezes in place because, hey, the sun is always shining. And as long as we time it correctly, we shouldn't have a problem. So with a little bit of government funding, a little bit of fundraising and some other money collection, Burns was set to hire a few ships and head north by northeast to see what he can find and hopefully find what is needed to get to Asia. So Barents is kind of putting his cartographer days behind him. He's like, okay, I can do this. I can find the Northeast Passage and it will revolutionize all of Europe and my hometown if I can make it work. there were three voyages and there were like one right after another. So there's like 1594 and then 50, 95 and then 1596, and then then last one ending in 1597. So like, this guy never took any time off on June 5th, 1594, set out with three ships from the island of Texel, which is in northern Netherlands. And it's almost like a little mini island that is attached, but yet not attached to the mainland. It's weird because if it's like a low tide, it's attached. If it's a high tide, it's like an island and it changes weekly. Got It's it. Ireland has a little mini islands that are like that where you can only access them during low tide. And and then when it's high tide, you're stuck there until it's low tide again, which I feel like that would actually be going too nice. It's like, That sounds fun. yeah, like I'm stuck on this beautiful island for three weeks and it was low tide again and nobody can get to me like, that's not bad. Yeah. I Stop could it. I could do that for a little bit. It's kind of cool. he had three ships and they would kind of set off in three different directions. I want to say three different directions. They were going to take like three different approaches to going through the Arctic. And the idea was that the three ships would meet up in You'll like this, Kara. The Kara Sea Yeah. Yes, they they I named have it after a place you. in the world. They knew you're coming in 2025 and they're like, we've got to we've got to support this girl. Oh, that was kind. You didn't have to do that. Actually, I don't deserve it. it was 1992. But it's kind. So they knew you're coming in 1992. That's what I was born. So what is that, about 400 years prior Got it? in commemoration for your future birth? They're going to name a sea after you. Yeah, that sounds right. It turns out that the Kara Sea is like the bane of Lorenz's life, like Yeah. This was a very elusive body of water that thwarted him and a lot of other people. And it sits like the Kara Sea sits like it like north of Russia's, like Siberia area. And then to the west of it, there's like a weirdly shaped island. It's like a crescent island called Novaya Zemlya. It's I feel like it's like a singer's name, like, Oh, did I butcher it or. Oh, I could see that. I also just want to commend you for trying to pronounce this. I'm trying to use what little foreign language skills that I have. No, it sounds fine. I just. I would butcher it if I tried it. Yeah, they, they, I think they would pronounce it Novaya Zemlya or Zemlya because that was following a consonant. Whereas the Novaya, the Y is following another vowel. I could actually look it up in Google pronunciations. Got it. Let's see. Uh, yeah. I'm not afraid to try. We could. All right, let's do it here. I just wanted to commend Oh, you for drawing wow. Can getting slow? respect. Oh, okay. So it is Novaya Zemlya. So I was right the second time. It has to do with the following a consonant. So. So, yeah. Okay. You've got the Novaya zemlya. It's a vertical shaped island. That kind of is the boundary between the rest of the Arctic Ocean and like Siberia. And the idea was to have these three ships kind of meet up there and then proceed. And the ship that Barents was on was called the Mercury, which I don't know, that seems kind of ominous because what is Mercury? The God of war? Yeah, I thought that was Mars. think, You're probably uh, right. Mercury known for My Roman mythology is not as clear as my Greek mythology. But. Messenger? Yep. So a messenger of the gods and guiding souls to the underworld. Also, the God of commerce in travel. Okay. That's fitting. I Well, yeah. Mercury is the Roman God of commerce, Eloquence, travelers, communication, messengers and trickery. Wow. He sounds fun. He sounds busy. That, too. He's like the Roman version of Loki, in a way. But I just like, how is funny is like Mercury guides souls to the underworld. Yeah. And I'm on a boat Yeah. that's named the Mercury. On a boat, But yeah, it was. It was considered a very small ship. Even by the end times, uh, it was 70 meters long or 230 feet. yeah, it's shorter, significantly shorter than a football field. And you see pictures of it. I'm sorry, but these ships, this looks so comical. There. Very squat. Mm hmm. they're. They're strictly designed to haul goods. They're not designed for any comfort whatsoever. yeah, they were. They were hilarious. They're too utilitarian. Whereas when we get into 17th and 1800s, they become very elegant, overengineered, a lot of technology. They actually had rooms in them and all that kind of stuff. But back then they were just like, Can this thing even float, let alone? It could float to carry goods, but that's. That's Yeah. it. Yep. They're designed to carry a lot of gold. And even still there are too top heavy. So a lot of Spanish ships coming out of the New World because they were loaded too much with gold. one thing to keep in mind is that this part of the world was not explored. So when you look at that waters above Finland and Norway, du in Svalbard, um, this was not really looked into all that much. People just didn't really think anything of it. Um, the Americas technically had more exploration done to it by now than the waters north of Europe and Russia was. I found that was kind of interesting. There was more people doing stuff in America than people trying to see what's north of them. Interesting. Yeah, it's like playing Zelda and skipping an entire part of the map and you're just trying to beat the game by going left and right. But you never go north or like, super far south. It's kind of weird. I'm thinking of the very first Zelda where, like, you can beat the game in a way if you play it right, you don't have to Yeah. spend time in the northeast part of the map. But I digress. Maybe these people tried. I'm thinking of like, maybe the Vikings, right? And if you're like the Vikings did a lot that they don't get credit for, like Yes, they did. actually discovery America and Yeah. Greenland. yeah yeah. My guess is they Yeah, probably went up there and they're like, this place sucks and probably. like, we're out like, yeah, and then nobody followed them. So for the first month of the first expedition, the crew followed the coastline of Norway, Uh, and then it wrapped around to the east side, where Russia had carved out a chunk of land next to modern day Finland. So, like, Finland is sandwiched between a Russian province and Norway. Along the way, they stopped at some of the 1 to 2 billion little islands that seem to dot the coastline of Norway. And if you zoom in on Google Maps and you look at Norway like if you look at these early maps is hilarious because they had like the coastline of Norway and then like what you think are actually city names is one right after another listed in in the land. No, those are the names of the individual little islands that are like 20 miles here, ten miles there a mile. Like it's just nothing but islands. And I have no idea how they kept track of what's what. I imagine there's like a lot of flags like, okay, Mm hmm. I see a French flag, I see a British flag, I see a Russian flag. I don't see a Norwegian flag. All right. Boom. All right. I know that's one of ours now, because that's how the world was conquered back then was a cunning use of flags if you're an Eddie Izzard fan. So yeah, they somehow managed to avoid all the scary monsters, all the angry Mermaids and Kraken that lurked in the waters based on the maps that were drawn back then. Like Burns's crew is doing pretty good. They're not even being killed off by supernatural creatures. Hey, we're making progress. Yeah, Great. and better yet, they didn't even fall off the edge of the earth. Well, they. They stayed on Earth. killing That's it. right. You flat earthers. They stayed on the planet because the planet is round. So at first month, really, nothing much happened. They, I know they, they found a few animals at catalogs and stuff. Uh, you know, it just did explore people things. Yeah. On July 9th, things got a little spicy when there was the incident with the polar bear. Oh, good. Yeah, And it was the first polar bear ever discovered. Okay. And there was an incident with some men and the polar bear. Okay. So I have no idea where William's island is. I tried to find it. Um, I did a Google search for William's island, and it comes up as like a bar and restaurant in Florida, Sick. especially like Bear Creek. So apparently, uh, while Barents was parked at William's Island near Bear Creek, I'm assuming it's somewhere around the Netherlands. It's in between, uh, Novaya and in Finland, Right? It's somewhere in between there. Yeah. I they were just chillin there. Somebody forgot to pull the ramp in because this is back when there was, like, one ramp and that's how you got on and off the boat. So we've got to pull the ramp in. And they woke up to a polar bear that was trying to board their ship. And Looking for food? uh, yes, and they're like, What is this thing? And whenever you come across the new species, the proper European thing to do is kill it. Yes. they grabbed their muskets, which, sorry, 1500s. They sucked. they spent a long time trying to shoot this bear. Uh, they tried poking it with things. They tried stabbing it with things. Maybe one or two bullets actually hit it because their guns were so inaccurate. but they're like, crap. We can't kill this thing. It turns out that an eight foot bear that weighs over £1,000 is pretty hard to kill, Uh huh. especially Yeah. when you look at the high carbon metals that they had, like in their guns and in their spears and everything. Like you would try to hit the bear with one of your iron pokey things and the blade would just shatter in the cold. Oh, yeah. after a while they gave up trying to kill the bear and they're like, Hey, what if we bring it on board? We tie it up and then we bring it home with us. So That is the most manly man idea. Okay, We can't kill it, so we're going to keep it. yeah, so that's what they did. They proceeded to tie the bear up and again, eight foot tall, 1000 plus pound bear broke free of restraints and Uh went huh. on a rampage while they're at sea. Good for bear. So now I'm just visioning this little explorer ship and you have like dozens of men, like screaming and yelling as the boat's like, rocking side to side. It was like this bear is just like whipping people out into the water or like, biting them like this. Pure chaos of them trying to control this gigantic polar Oh, bear. God, that's amazing. And so, yeah, their after hours of fighting this bear, they managed to push it overboard and they vowed never to deal with polar bears again because those things suck. Yeah, man, they're vicious. That's hilarious. Barents and the crew, uh, what was left of them are most of them discovered Orange Island because I guess Orange is the New Island name. And I could not find it anywhere on Google Earth. like I said, there's literally thousands of islands in this part of the world. And again, I'm not sure how they could tell if this island was new or not, but maybe because Barents was like one of the first ones out there. Okay, We can, we can ascertain that this is probably a new island, kind of like how if you look at a map of the moon, you'll notice that the side that faces Earth has like Greek and Roman and European names for like the craters in the mountains and stuff. But if you look at the far side of the moon, a side that doesn't face Earth, they're all Russian names. And that's because And they Russia sense. was the first to get a probe behind the moon to take a picture. Yeah, that makes sense. hey, if you see it first, you get to name it. So Yep. that's yeah, one side is all European names, the other side is all Russian names, which I find it kind of funny. Yeah, It's funny. While hanging out in Orange Island, the crew came across about 200 walruses, alien species. Great. They were all like, Wow, okay, Oh, these are cool. there they're wasn't also very dangerous. a yes as they find out. So Okay. the natural course of action when you come across a new species of animal is you try and kill it. And the idea was to kill as many of these as possible and then bring home the tusks because, you know, they could be used for something So they declared war on these 200 walruses and they got their butts kicked. Oh, been. They discovered that was just a very, very hard to kill. Bullets Yeah. didn't work well too much on them. And again, they tried going out there with clubs and spears and pikes and other iron pokie devices and like they would stab this blob of fat and like, the blade would break off and the walrus wouldn't even care like That's sick. that. So when it was all said and done, they got a couple of them killed and they were only able to get like a couple pairs of tusks back on the ship. And once they left Orange Island, they're like, okay, we're going to leave this whole ivory trade thing for Europeans when they get into Africa later on in European history. I don't know how they draw that conclusion We're at that time, but let's just say they did and okay. they're like, Yeah, leave it somebody else. This was done in right before the winter of 1594. Barents made landfall on the west coast of North via Zemlya, which That's that crescent shaped Yes, island situation. yes. And there Yeah. are there'll be maps on the days some Safaricom to try to point that out. But what it would look like is really the only big island up there. So you can't miss it. Other than Svalbard. But we'll get to that a little bit later on. right before the winter they made landfall there and it's a it's a very long crescent shaped island. So parents is like, okay, well, let's head north. Let's see how big this thing is. And they finally kind of get to the top of it. And that's when they discover her that, Oh, crap, the Kara Sea was starting to ice over their ship. They knew they couldn't handle that. If they got their ship stuck in ice, they were done for like Yeah. they would be stuck there until it thawed if it ever thawed. And Yeah. they're like, Well, let's go home. And that's I what can't they did. blame them. Yeah, they just saw Yeah. it. They saw these chunks of ice forming and they're like, We're out. I mean, honestly, after the polar bear and the walruses, I'd be like, I'm out, too. I've done Well, I'm envisioning like Monty Python, like little skits where they're like little cartoon characters that come out with all their European weapons. And then they get in a tussle with these polar bear or a polar bear, and they're like, retreat, retreat, retreat. Try to get away from it. And then there's like a whole bunch of walruses. And they got all their spears and they go marching out and then a tussle with the walruses. And they're like, retreat, Retreat Retreat. right. Oh, that's great. They got the dude at the coconuts, like. So Oh, all things considered, that mission was considered a success. right? They mapped a lot of stuff. They discovered a lot of stuff. They brought some stuff back. And this really helped. The second voyage and the second voyage was put together by Prince Maurice of Orange. I okay. guess the moral of the story is that, hey, if you want to get funding for another trip naming island after the guy that you're trying to get money from to fund another voyage, Smart. and this Marine guy, he was very business oriented. He had like two brothers that were in there trading and stuff like that. And he looked at how far Barents on the first journey, and he was like, we had to have been close to Asia, like looking how far. And he kind of had an idea of how big Earth was. He's like, Man, we had to been like within a weeks of travel of Asia. Little did he know or anybody knew that even if they got past, uh, Novaya Zemlya, there was still like another 12,000 miles to go. Yeah. Hence that, that part of like the futility of this goal, like, they had no idea, like they were kind of just wasting their time doing this, but you know what they don't know will hurt them. So memories of Orange, he's like, okay, Mr. Barents, I want you to take six ships now. And because Maria was like, Man, we were so close before or I think this next time Barents can get all the way there. And then what we can do is we get there and we have six ships full of cargo that Europeans don't want or need, but Asians could love take that, sell all that stuff or trade it for really, really, really expensive goods that Europeans do want. Right. And then bring all that back to the Netherlands we sell it offsets the cost of this expedition and we've established a trade route with Asia that nobody else has. You know, it's kind of a Southern strategy. It's it's Yeah. It makes its good business sense if you don't count the thousands and thousands and thousands of miles of land. yeah, that that you would have Yeah, to sail around. Yeah, I can totally see where this guy is coming from. he sent up Barents to basically do the same exact thing, but this time actually make contact with Asia and Okay. the issue that well, the thing to think here is that Barents had only just barely scratched the surface of Novaya Zemlya, let alone do much sailing in the Kara Sea. I think they're maybe getting a little ahead of themselves. But hey, Barents is like, Hey, you want to fund this thing, You want to give me six ships, let's go. And on Yeah. June 2nd, 1595, set out with six ships with the main goal of getting to Novaya Zemlya or Zemlya in a more timely manner. So instead of like stopping and exploring every little quarter mile wide island off of, of like Norway, they were just going they we're going to head straight there, let's Okay. get there sooner and beat the weather. So that's what they did They they this time they just kind of made a beeline for it and the expedition was intended to make money. The stakes were higher. So there's a thing in maritime law to think about at this time. Let's say you're a captain of a merchant ship, right? Okay. You find somebody who wants to sell their goods in Asia. So you, as the captain, you have one or two options. You can buy all the stuff from the merchant, right? So you really like, hey, I will say, I'll pay you for all this stuff. I will go and sell it. And then you as a captain, you are you have full right to sell to whoever you want for whatever you want. It's it's up to you. Or Yeah. you can take possession of the cargo and sell it on the sellers terms. Selected captain is kind of like the mediator. So all that stuff, the captain gets his cut and he brings back the money or the traded goods for the original seller and like, collect a commission off of it. So Mm. either way, you're taking responsibility for a lot of money of goods. Yeah. And Yeah. That's a lot. yeah, and if the ship sinks and you come home now, then you have to pay for the ship, but you also have to pay for the lost cargo. Mm. So there's a lot on the line here for Barents to like make it work. And yeah, it's is tricky because suddenly he can't just do all the exploring things that you want it to do. Now, this is strictly a business trip. in August, so they made it to Novaya Zemlya and pretty fast time like they made it there in August instead of like October. And instead of sailing to the north to scout a path around it, Barents is like, okay, we're to go through the south and hopefully we can find a strait or something that goes through it. And that's what they did. They found Body Guards Island. So Na'vi comes under a crescent and then there's like a 30, 40 mile wide gap. I think it's more than I think it's like a hundred miles. But there's a gap between the southern tip of Novaya and the bycatch Bycatch Island. And that's like part of Russia, part of modern day Russia. And while they were passing through this, they came across this some more weird wild men. And it I don't know to what extent these people were wild, but it was no different than Europeans calling Native Americans savages. Yeah. And these people were old like. They Yeah. have been there going all the way back to like the Roman Empire, like these were Europeans that had like a breakaway civilization. And they made Okay. it to this island and then history forgot about them. Like if you look at it now, there's like a little town there of, like 12 houses. Oh, Yeah, it's very quaint. And cute. there's some more yet people are kind of, uh, they're almost like a race. Like, you can have Africans, you can have Asians, you can have, you know, Caucasians. The Samoans are kind of like the Russian form of Native Americans. Okay. And, and so, yeah, they were considered wild men in Brits was like, Oh, that's neat. Look, let's go talk to a branch of humanity we've never met before. Yeah. And somehow he had a guy that could actually talk to them, which, What? That's a trip, Oh, yeah, yeah. Somehow he had to do that. Can actually talk to this Mayan people in their native language. huh? But That's handy. yeah, no, it's one of those things like out of the group you're like, I don't know how to communicate with these people. And then you've got like Phil in the back. He's like, I got you. Like, Okay, okay. Where, where did you learn how to speak a language from a group of people that we had no idea even existed? Oh, I knew a guy. It's a long story. Oh. Oh, okay. Well, go talk to them. So Yeah. How about it? that's what they did. And so they talk to him for a little bit and really nothing too crazy happened. But while they were talking to this Mayan people on September 4th, a small party sent out to States Island, no idea where that's at. I'm assuming it's somewhere near Vegas. But sure. And the Cool. reason why they wanted to go there is because they spotted some weird looking crystals there and they wanted to bring some back because. Okay, that's. I understand that. Yeah, because all all men are hillbillies to an extent where they have a thing for shiny things Mm like hmm. shiny rocks. I was thinking about, like, when you play Breath of the Wild or, like, Skyrim or something, you want to collect all the things Oh, yeah, that see. That's what I chalk it up to. But that works, too. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I can see that they're like pieces of sky that are falling Yeah. down. Yeah, Well, either exactly. way, I'm sure they were preparing a trip to go to Sedona, Arizona, and they needed crystals It's to represent at the vortex convention or whatever it is their I, fourth chakra. uh, something. They need to clear Yeah, it. they're. They're trying to open the third eye, or he Yeah. was healing crystals and whatnot. So, Yeah. um, needless to say, they got there and they're trying to find these crystals. And instead the party got attacked by another polar bear, Oh, and it kicked their asses all over again. This time two guys died, and the rest of them just ran away. So wow. That's unfortunate. it's like the. What was it? It was the second or the third parts of Caribbean movie where it kind of starts off with Jack Sparrow, like running away from like, these cannibals. Yeah. That that's what I had in mind here. Except for this time it's a polar bear that's chasing him. Yeah, Just. Oh, that's accurate. so they they packed up. They got back on their boat. They said bye to the wild men, and they headed to the Kara Sea. Upon getting the Kara Sea, they hit a little snag. This was the path that was going to get them to the Asian mainland. It really okay. wouldn't work even if they didn't make it through. But they noticed Yeah. that the entire Kara Sea was hundred percent frozen over Oh, good. like they could walk on the Kara sea. Oh, I'm sure that was disappointing. Yeah. So there's like, well, now what? What do we do? Like Yeah. Like. Like the fish at the end of Finding Nemo, right, Yeah, we thought. Oh, no, it. yeah, yeah. They're like, yeah, they're in the bag. So like, what do we do now? Yeah, Go home. yeah. So, I mean, yeah, you lost two guys due to polar bear. Go home. yep, yep. And this, this mission was considered a failure, uh, Yeah. because of the six boats of goods that needed to be sold in order for this to be financially worthwhile. Yeah, I could see that. So they turned back and got crap. So they get back. And the Dutch government in 1596 is like, okay, we are no longer going to fund these expeditions because like, they're going nowhere and they're getting very costly and they keep ending in failure. So the recent failure was treacherously expensive because all the goods in those six ships had to be returned with not much of a market to sell them in. Yeah. So nobody wanted to buy this crap. So it was kind of like a wash up. As a result, the Dutch government was like, okay, we're not going to pay for these types of expeditions anymore, but instead we'll put forward a reward system. Anyone who can find a way to the Northeast Passage or get through that to connect with Asia will receive a huge reward. This puts the cost of exploration on privateers and donors slash investors. So other people in society will absorb the cost with the hope that if they make it, then they're going to get a huge bonus from their government. Yeah. Right. Or tax break Yep. or something. And shockingly, Burns's reputation did not take too much of a beating. Uh, That's good. yeah, Like, well, the last voyage was a failure. It wasn't his fault that God decided to freeze the heresy in the beginning of winter. Fair. It's not like he could have predicted it. So the down Council of Amsterdam purchased and outfitted two small ships to be captained by. I think it's John Rip, Okay. because I think the J is is a Y son is Reap and Yeah. Jacob. Then he and Buskirk Nice. Yeah. Anybody by the name of Jacob or it would be Jacob von Heemskerk. Hmm. And both of these two guys would under the command of Brent. So this kid just has a knack for, like, getting out of trouble. Like, I like you had I so a failure far, of a mission. like red. Yeah, Yeah, I know. It's just like, Yeah, I know you failed here, but here is more money. Go for it. So is on May 10th or 15th, history is a little vague on this too. Ship sailed out, and instead of heading northeast by east, uh, instead of following, like, the coastline down along, like, Russia and Siberia and I kind of stuff, they went down north, and the idea was that we're just going to cut straight the Arctic Circle and pop out, uh, in Asia, which, okay. Okay. yeah, instead of like following the coastline all the way around there, just like this, make a beeline straight north until we start heading south. So now there'd been the other side of Earth heading south, and they're just. Just cut out all the crap to the east. So, Got it. um, so that's, that's what they did. They, they, they went north. And on June 9th, so a little less than a month later, they discover Bear Island, which Nice. you can probably guess why it was named Bear Island. So. Oh, Okay. the names get better. Trust me, they, yeah, they, they are this so literal about the naming conventions. It's hilarious. I love it. I don't think they spent much time there. Given Prince's proclivity to get crew members involved with polar bears. But they, like, charted it, made a note of it, and moved on. This island sits midway in between Norway and Svalbard. So Okay. it's it's like Yeah. a halfway I found mark. it. Okay. Yeah, That one actually shows up on Google Maps Yeah. Yeah. up This one comes up. about a week later, on June 17th, they discovered Spitz Bergen, which is like the Western Oh. part Yep. of Svalbard. Found that one too. Cool. And then they're like, Well, this is cool. Like, let's explore the place. And so they basically go on a cruise around Island, and that's kind of like how cartography works, is you follow the coastline all the way around and then you're dropping knots in the water, measuring how fast you're going. That's how you figure out your distance. And it's a kind of a really complicated process to make these maps. But that's what they did, is they went all the way around this island. And, um, and so, yeah, on the 20th, they found a large natural bay, uh, which Okay. would later be called Round Jordan, Okay. which I think translates into natural bay. Nice. Like it? Yes. Then There's a they. lot of those in the world, but. Oh I Okay. know. Yeah. It's very original. Yeah. They found the only one apparently on the No. 25th they into uh Magdalena a fjord in which they called Tusk Bay because Yeah. of the walls tusks that they found there. Right. Right. So they stopped and picked up a bunch of those because they sold very well. When the first set came back Nice. on 26th, they sailed into for land Sudan or Sudan. Soon. Debt for land, soon debt for land. Sident but had to turn back because of the nasty waters there. Like there's all these shoals and everything and that literally they they named it like place of nasty waters don't go Love it. so Might as well make the name useful. uh huh as opposed You know? to like cape of good hope. Yeah. That's misleading. Yeah that's very misleading. This is not misleading at all. Um, on the 28th Toronto, the northern point of Svalbard called a prince Falkland. Okay. When I first saw it, I thought it was Prince or Prince Carl's foreskin, which Oh, no. that would have been. That would have been an epic name. That would have been epic, but unfortunate. Yes, Especially if you have a house there like. Oh, Like you're a lighthouse on the foreskin yeah. of Svalbard. So and they basically called it, uh, the place of many birds because Okay. they got there Because and there's there are so many words. thousands of birds everywhere. All right. So. Okay. Okay. Yep, yep. I told you, the names are just very original. Um, Yeah, but, you know, I can get behind it. They're very straightforward, honest. well, and they kind of give future explorers an idea of what's going on there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. As opposed to, like, Bob's Island. Okay, cool. It's an island full of dyslexic people, and they're all named Bob because you can't misspell Bob backwards. Oh, no. So, and then they proceeded to sail down the east side, making their way down south. They took more pit stops, continue mapping the island as we know it today. The reason why, like everything is name variants everywhere, it's just because they, they really this is like the only time when if they was talking about Svalbard, it's like the only time in history that Svalbard comes up. Hmm. And on July 1st they made their way back to Bear Island Okay. and they're like, Okay, what are we going to do now? A fight broke out on one side. Captain Rip Rip hour. IGP He's like, I want to keep going north and I just want to cut through the Arctic Circle and get to the other side of the world that way, less up screwing around. Let's just go for it. Meanwhile, All right. Barents and Van Heemskerk, they wanted to head east and try their luck going around Novaya Zemlya. Okay. their plan was taking into consideration that if they hurry, they'll get there by mid-July, which should be months ahead of the weather. Right? So instead In of even getting theory. there in August, we're going to get there even earlier. And there is no way that this could possibly go wrong. Okay. Famous last words. Yeah, So ultimately, no concessions can be made between the two groups. So read what North and Barents Heemskerk would go east. none of these leaders would ever see each other ever again. That's quite said. Yes, but they did cross paths later on in a weird way. And I'll Hmm. get there by July 17th. Barents had reached Novaya Zemlya, which was good because they had beaten that winter freeze. That seemed to happen much earlier here than in other parts of the world. Remember, Barents was marketing funding in Northeast Passage because there's 24 seven sun and it never Right. freezes. And It shouldn't be frozen. yeah, twice now they've gotten there and it's frozen. Yeah. You would think that he'd drop the. Maybe he just feels like he needs to keep going. Well, I think what it was is like if we can get there in summer Yeah. where there is all that sunlight, it would still work Okay. as opposed to getting there when it's starting to like turn into fall. Got it. But keep in mind, when you're that far north, every day of summer is fall. Like it's just cold. Like the ground up there is permanently frozen. As as we will discover here, Barents decided to try his hand at going through the gap between Novaya Zemlya and Vygotsky or the Vygotsky Strait. Okay. However, they never made it to the Strait because the ship got stuck No. in ice floe Oh. which was compressing Oh. their ship because of icebergs. That all came about during an unexpected freeze. At this point, I really just want them to succeed. And I know that they're not going to. And it said. Well, then the story here gets really interesting because this is now becomes a story of perseverance and what these guys go through is a mixture of like pure genius and just a crap ton of fortitude. Like I, I really to give these guys credit for what happened next. So the 16 man crew was unable to break the they tried lighting fires to melt the ice, but this ice had been frozen for hundreds of years. And there's way that was going to melt anytime soon. Yeah. So they quickly got they were getting pinched in. So what they did is they got to the coast of Novaya Zemlya, like as close as they could. And then before the ice completely locked them in this way, they could actually get to land. Okay. They got to land, but there was no lake usable land. Everything was frozen over. Um. And that's that permafrost, like parts of Alaska, has never defrosted. Yeah. It's just the ground will always be frozen until the planet heats up and then it melts, which is actually making a lot of discoveries, like because of global warming, they're finding places in like northern Europe where the bog bodies, though Oh, yeah. the water has thought out and then like these bodies have been unearthed because this so the silver lining to the planet turning into a toaster oven, I suppose. they made their way to land and the only thing they found was like this icy, barren shelf and they had to set up camp there and it was just rock ice. So what they did is they took wood from the ship as well as whatever driftwood they could find, and they built a cabin. This thing was 25 feet long and feet wide. That's not bad, considering they didn't have much ability with. Yeah. Like that's the size of a, of a good sized house. Yeah. Like, yeah, it's pretty impressive. And they named the, uh, they named a cabin or like a little mini fort and had a roof, had fireplaces. Like to bring up job on this. They named the cabin head beholden Well, does that mean. or is beholden Heyes or this saved house. At this So, point, I just appreciate it. uh, yeah. That's Yep. great. And, and now we got 16 dudes trying to survive. Yeah. Life in the lodge wasn't like a resort, but it was survivable during the height of the winter months. So they've been there. They got stuck in, like, July, August, and they stayed there all the way through the winter. So when it was like January time, the height of the winter, and it was just consistently like 40 degrees below zero all the time, Yeah. like, yeah, it was a death sentence to the point where like they, their socks would catch on fire before any warmth from the fire would make their way to their feet. Just because That's they were. Had their feet in the fire trying to get warm. yeah. Okay. It was so cold that their socks, they outside of their socks would catch fire before the warmth would get through the ice of the socks and get to their skin. Yikes. Yeah that's, that's bloody cold. And Yeah, That's very cold. they cut down the sales of the ship uh, to make more clothing as well as blankets and whatnot. And so that was one of the ways they were able to survive. Um, the other thing they would do too, is they would take rocks and cannonballs throw them into the fire. So they got crank and hot, and then when it was time to go to bed, they would pull the cannonballs out and. Then they would kind of like wrap themselves around the cannonball as like a radiator, like radiating heat. Mm hmm. So they would sleep with cannonballs, Hmm. rocks pulled out of a fire, which that's a pretty clever idea, Yeah. because I imagine those cannonballs could hold heat for quite some time. Yeah, It's pretty smart. At first they had to salted beef, butter, cheese, bread, barley, peas, beans, groats. I don't know what that is, but, um, flour, oil, vinegar, mustard seed, salt, beer, wine, brandy, hardtack, smoked bacon, ham and fish. So they were pretty well-stocked and they did a very good job rationing things out. Like it's not like they had like a week of feasts and then they were just out of food. Yeah. No, they actually rationed it out very intelligently and they had issues with the casks of beer. It would freeze and then explode. So for those of us who know trucking and beer, uh, customers, we know that beer does not like to freeze. No, it does not. It's like the same thing. If you put a soda can in the freezer to cool it down and you forget about it. Yeah, Yeah. yeah, it just ruptures. but the thing with beer is that it actually has a much lower freezing temperature because of the alcohol. So when it does freeze, watch out. Oh, yeah, that's true. It's is worse. So the ship's carpenter, Garrett Diver, is the only thing, the only reason why we know what happened on the third, uh, expedition here is because this guy, his journal, he reported by November 8th, the beer and bread were running out, and wine was being rationed, believe it or not. You know, beer and bread when you're in Arctic like conditions, those are life savers, because beer contains a ton of sugar and the carbohydrates and everything that makes you fat from drinking beer keeps, you alive in, in a situation like this, not to mention you never have to complain about the beer being warm. It's That's always cold. true. Silver Yep. linings. Yep. The silver bullet never ends there. Or Mm the hmm. silver train or whatever that beer is. I don't know. And then like bread. Same thing full of carbs, full sugars. those are things that your body needs to keep itself warm. So they were starting to run low, but they were still able to, to keep going for the most part. And on January 1597, the crew became the first to witness what is known as the Novaya Zemlya effect. And it's a really rare effect that happens usually on the oceans and where you see the sun set right before the top part of that sun goes below the horizon, you'll see like a green flash of light. And it's very rare. It's considered to be a good luck thing. so like maritime folks like it, it can only happen in very, very, very specific, settings like some people have reported of seeing it off of, uh, you know, the coast of California, uh, watching the sunset, and they'll see like a green. It almost looks like a little laser beam above the sun. Huh? And it's just how the light is refracting through Earth's atmosphere. And there's not a lot of green light that comes from the sun, but the way that it interacts with the atmosphere, it makes like this little green bar above it for, like a couple of seconds and then it goes away. That's neat. Yeah. So yeah, Yeah, they get to see something like that, that's cool. uh, for more food. The crew got pretty good at hunting Arctic foxes, so they came up with like very primitive traps. And it turns out that the raw meat from Arctic foxes, as well as a lot of other Arctic animals, has high levels of vitamin C and which is good because that prevents scurvy. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. That's a plus. Yep. Look at Just go. Yeah, I know. They're like, they're like making all sorts of discoveries and all sorts of stuff or they, Yeah. I don't think they knew what caused scurvy back then and they certainly didn't know what vitamin C was. But they probably noticed in at that time, like every sailor had a bout of scurvy like, and you could always tell they're very bow legged Mm. and that's because their tibia and fibula behave more like rubber and then they warp and cause any problems and all that kind of stuff. so yeah, like who knew? Yeah. Yes, the crew were continuously harassed by polar bears. They just couldn't get away from these things, man. They're just like, everywhere up there. This is where the story gets a little funny. when the weather started to warm up again, So they went all through the winter, and then they're getting into the spring, and they're like, Hey, it's starting to warm up. Like we're seeing the sun more. There may be a chance that we can get to our ship and get the heck out of here. However, when they got back to their ship after being away for months, um, it turns out that all the polar bears in the area watched. House Hunters International, and Mm they hmm. found that there was this wooden cabin that was shaped like a giant bow that was empty and free for the taking. So when they returned to their ship, they discovered that it was filled with dozens of polar bears just lounging about How mad would you be? all there. But I would have lost it Right. like you saw the kind of damage that one did, let alone like 48 of them. There were like in the cabin they were in like the eating area. They were in the captain's cabin, like they were laying on the deck like there Just is hanging this out. all? Yeah, just all these polar bears. And they're just kind of looking at the crew like, What are you going to do? So, Oh, yeah, man. yeah, they had to battle all these polar bears, and that's exactly what happened. Uh, for a little bit. There was a little war that started. But again, bullets weren't working. Weapons were just chattering, and, they had to give up. They're like, Okay, screw this. Fine. Just. Just take the boat, you stupid bears. Whatever. They did manage to take the two dinghies Okay. so they they were able to steal those back and that's what they did. They loaded these dinghies up with as much food as they possibly could. These were meant to be like boats that could hold like ten people that they would send off to an island, like a scouting Mm hmm. thing. So they were bigger, but they were uncovered. so, yeah, they took both of those boats. They loaded up with what they could, and then they set out to sea as they watched Beloved Ship with all these polar bears on it, just kind of giving them the middle, the middle finger bear wave goodbye. Just. Oh, man. Yeah, just yeah, that, It's infuriating, that's but what I, funny. It's so funny. I know. And I named this The revenge of the polar bears. It's like they're are pissed off because of the one that died Yeah. by their hand by being thrown overboard. by June 20th, 1597, it was evident that Novaya Zemlya and the polar bears were not going to release their ship as it was still stuck on the ice and loaded with bears. So they hopped into these dinghies and they rode up to sea. And then sadly, on June 20th, I actually had here by June 20th, 1597, that was actually, I think it was like June 13th that they just headed out. And then like a week later, uh, William Barents died at sea. Oh, Yeah. There was no information on how he died. Uh, they don't know if he was buried at sea or on land. Like, maybe they brought him back to Novaya Zemlya to bury him. Like, they just they couldn't ascertain that. Um, maybe. Maybe he died because he knew that when he would get back home, the amount of debt that he was going to have from these failed attempts was going to be like. Like he's going to spend the rest of his life in debtor's prison trying to pay this off. I don't think that's what would have happened. But it's just he just up and died. So that the left, polar bears. Got them? right? Yeah. In fact, if it were if it was me, I would if I was going to be the one that was going to die, I'd be like, okay, use my body, drag it out to the polar bears on that boat and use my body to lure them off and then sneak aboard, pull the ramp in and and get the heck out of there. But Yeah. the problem is that I don't even think that boat could have even sailed anywhere because they cut the sails down to make Oh, clothing that's right. out of. So like, It would've what been were pointless you going to do anyway. when you get there? Yeah. It's like you took away from the current to pull you out. It's. So the the remaining crew and I believe there was 12 of them at this point out of the 16. So I was thinking like there were hundreds of people and I was thinking that like, 90 out of the 100 died because they've been on this thing since the war going on almost a year now, because they got there in July Mm. of 96 and they didn't leave until like June of 97. And they were at sea and all like there were 16 of them total, plus Barents, and there were 12 of them left. So four who died in total during this whole year, year and a half long escapade. That's impressive. I think. I think. Yeah. Considering the conditions, how long they were out there, how they were living, rationing food and living off of Fox meat. Yeah, It's yeah, not bad. yeah. I No, mean, in terms it's of dumpster unfortunate. fires, Yeah, yeah, they did pretty good. So, yeah, you're right. It's unfortunate, but they, they made it work. And this is the crappy part, too. It's like they at sea for seven weeks until they landed on the Kola Peninsula. So if you look at that Norway, Finland, Russia sandwich that the Kola Peninsula is on the Russian side of it and it kind of juts out and, you know, to to the west have Norway in the middle, you have Finland and then you've got this Russian province and that is where they were discovered by the Dutch. Only 12 men survived with four dying at sea or in Novaya Zemlya. Um, or thereabouts. Like they don't know exactly when the four people died. They do know that the cabin boy he died on the island like he got sick and died. So they knew about him. But the other ones, they weren't too sure. The guy who found them was none other than captain and former explorer John Rip. So he's back? he's back and he's ready to rip. Yep. Well, and like I said, like, these leaders would never see each other again. That's kind of true. Yeah. The leaders never would see each other again. But that Ya'an guy met, like, his old crew. And what it was is he had already made the trip and came back and he was heading out on his second trip when he discovered that Burns's men were on this peninsula. Okay. And so, yeah, by November 1st, the remaining crew were returned to Amsterdam and they're the journal from that that carpenter later published along the accounts of hygiene or hygiene Van Linschoten, Hmm. who was a famous archivist, explorer, even spy. He did a lot of work in like India and stuff like that. Nice. yeah, he was on the first two, Okay. so he kind of like just hopped aboard as part of the crew for the first two. That's why we know about them is because of this van. I don't know how to pronounce Linn Linschoten. He too has a lot of stories. It's kind of interesting to read his works, but. But yeah, he he wrote about the first two, and then we had the carpenter that wrote about the third one. That's on the reason why we know anything about it. And, yeah, they published their books in 1593. The Mermaid and Sea was now chained to the Barents Sea, and a number of whaling vessels were also rebuilt and christened with the name of Willem Barents. So there is even in the sixties I think there was another Lake Explorer ship like a diesel steel ship that they rechristened as the William Barents, and by 1873 a universe city was built for maritime investigation named like the Willem Barents School of Marine. Whatever. So like everything in that whole Svalbard area, everything was being named after Prince. And if you look around there like you look at any towns and stuff like that, there's like Barents Road, there's City Hall, it's like, Yeah, this is the most famous guy that Svalbard can lay claim to it. Yes. and I was actually one of mine seeing this in 1931. A play was written about the third voyage, but it was never performed. That would be a good topic for a play. yeah, Yeah. It would have been up there with like, um. What is it? Uh, Morgan Stern, John Stein. Uh, it's like a, uh, a take on Hamlet where Mm it's like the two main guards in Hamlet. They have, their play where they don't realize that they're dead, hmm. but they're in Hamlet. And like, they, they're like, they play parts in and out of the play and all that kind of fun stuff. It's a more modern play, but it's this all it is, just these two guys, and that's all it is. I think that's play. But the third expedition I would actually watch or read a play I would, too. like that. That'll be interesting. Uh, and so yeah, that is this story of, of trying to get to Asia using that Northeastern passage. And William Burns Yeah. And so now, now I've got to ask the question again, like, have you ever tried so hard to achieve something where you are willing to sacrifice so much only to later find out that the original task was virtually impossible or impractical, Yeah. like, So in art school, I had the. And I was, like, 18, so don't judge me. But I had a brilliant idea. I was charged with making a dress or, like, a piece of clothing or something. And for those okay, of you who know me, I really hate sewing. So I had the brilliant idea of trying to make some sort of piece of clothing with duct tape. And then I tried to sew it together and uh, I got so frustrated and upset, I just went a different direction. So, wow. yes, not on the scale of this, but I could feel it. Yeah. And that that's a pretty good example. And I've done this to in the past when I was like a manager working in retail, like I would take on these projects and I would invest myself so much into like reworking this wall or setting up an end camp or trying to finish this, this product move. And I would pour myself into it. One not realizing I didn't have the foresight to see like, This is stupid, like you're just wasting your time. Ed Right. And I've done it in education where I think a lot of teachers do this, where they spend all this time planning up this mega unit only to out that the standards change at the last minute and the whole thing is scrapped. Like and then when you go back and look at it like there was no way this plan was going to work to begin with. And it's one of those things like in your personal lives, like even if you're listening to this, you 12 years old, you can look back at your life like, say when you were like seven and you're like, there was no way that was going to work. But when you're seven, you have no idea, You're like, I'm going to make this Hot Wheels track. Go to the other side of the world. right? Yep. Yep. And then when you find out that you only have like six feet of track, Yeah. you're like, Oh, okay, well, I know my place in the world Onto the next thing. well, and I and I think it's a very important dumpster fire to have in your life, because I think that's the thing that gives you hindsight. Like we see this with our students, right? We'll see a student want to try this project, like this art thing you and I both know, like there is no way this is going to end up well, like your projects going to fall apart. It's going to collapse under its own weight. Uh, you're going to get clay everywhere or wet clay everywhere. Yeah. You're going to paint, and the final product is going to look like crap. You and I know that. But yet we also kind of let them do it Yep. because, yes, it's going to turn into a dumpster fire and they're going to feel bad about it. But at least you're not stranding your men on an island for a year surrounded by polar bears. Yeah. Yeah. The difficulty level is different. Well, and the cost is is very different for us. It's, you know, like 20, $30 in paint and supplies. And we know, like at the end of the day, the thing that the kids are going to create is not going to end up in the Louvre. It's not going to be this masterpiece. It's going to look like a mixture of a mug, a play, a bowl or an ashtray like. And what they were trying to make is a bird. Well, you know, it's like like we know that this is going to end well, but then when they discover that little dumpster fire on their own, that's where you start building that hindsight, that that you only get by going through stuff like this. Like, for example, could you imagine if Burnt survived this and he made his way back and then he kind of put it together like there was no way that was going to work. Or better yet, if you live long enough to find out that even if he did get through the kerosene, there were still like another 8 to 10000 miles to go. Yeah. He is now in a position to go to other upcoming explorers and be like, Guys, don't waste your time. Try this instead. Right. And then what? What? You don't realize that's how you actually move humanity along is by understanding they have the wherewithal and know like, I've been here, it's not going to work. Try this rather than people trying the same thing over and over and over again, all of Europe would have sunk themselves trying to get through that. Kara Sea And in the 16th century, and nothing would have come about other than, well, now we have these explorers that went out there and they're like, yeah, don't do it it Yeah. but then also it causes a dilemma too, where you've got people that are like, well, I like I want to prove the naysayers wrong. Right. And and that's a tough one, right? Especially if you're young. You want to prove the adults wrong, that you can do this. And and who knows, maybe you pull it off. Maybe the technology, maybe the time is right. Maybe you do make it succeed because now there's ships that go all over up there. But those are like nuclear powered. They can be out for years at a time. They can break or sheets of ice. So it's going to happen. But if it doesn't happen to you, it's okay. Yeah. So you'll But be okay? that's where hindsight from. So that that's kind of the message that I got from it that like kind of like now, you know, that you cannot use duct tape to make an article of clothing. So yeah, that's that's, that's our story. I'm sticking to it. Nathaniel That was a really good suggestion. So if you have an idea out there of future topics, Send us your ideas to the days fire at gmail.com. visitor website. The day is dumpster fire. You can our show notes. You can see Karen's artwork there. You can hit us up on Instagram. We have a presence on there now. We are working on. I know recently you put a poll on there Yeah. for our listeners to figure out if they could guess what your upcoming episode is going to be. If you're hearing this by now, you already know it's on Roanoke. Yeah, So you put like a really weird, vague picture on there I of did. like this drawing of a sailing ship Yep. and like, Yeah. like I even knew what the episode was going to be about and I couldn't even guess. It was a Spanish sailing ship. But I thought Roanoke was a British. Yes, but the Spanish reminders in the story. Oh, got it. Got it. Okay. I was planning on And posting that's more as we went, but I haven't gotten a lot of feedback on it yet, so I was just going to wait. that. Yeah, I know. Like, please feel free to give us feedback. We love any and all feedback. The nice thing about not being like the Joe Rogan experience big is that we're actually capable of responding to most people. So yeah, if you want to hear from us, if you want to give us ideas that you know, especially constructive ones, don't say crazy things like I like everything about the show except for the hosts. Cool. Why are you listening? But but no, if you have ideas up there, please don't hesitate to hit us up. Do me a favor. Tell your friends and family about this. I've been setting up on podcast marketing. It turns out that the fastest way to grow a podcast is through word of mouth. So if you are getting something from this, if you're getting educated, if you're laughing, if you're entertained for crying, I hope there's not too much of that going on. But if you are getting something from the show, spread the word on it. Chances are if you're benefiting from it, somebody else will. And we want to build a community of dumpster fire. Men We'll workshop that. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Dumpster dumpster divers. it's better. Yeah, we're getting there. I want to come up with like a dumpster army type of thing. Okay. Yeah, well, we'll figure We'll work that out. on We'll it. workshop But it. We'll come back. yeah, Yeah. it may be a pull Yeah. on Instagram, We'll figure it out. so. Yeah, go ahead, tell people about us. Reach out to everybody, grab their phones, grab their computers get them on to our website and, uh, you know, get them signed up. This is a great episode. If you are a student studying history, whether in college or in high school or junior high or elementary school, and you want further ideas or if you if we cover an idea that could play a part in whatever research you're doing, you know, perfect show for it. So if you know people that are equally interested in history and how things can go horribly wrong and how we can benefit from all that, whether at a global level or at a personal level, Yeah, put it out there, get us signed up. So that's all I got. Do you have anything you wanted to add on? Uh, just to tag along on that. Uh, don't forget to write or review the podcasts and wherever you're listening to it, because it does help to. Oh, yeah, Yeah. And any and all reviews. I do know iTunes said that reviews doesn't help the algorithm at all to get spotted but that says iTunes leaving a review just it helps us at the Berryman Yeah. It Just, helps you know, some us stars yeah yeah it helps us to figure out what we're doing right, what we're doing wrong. Um, on a podcast, it's all about doing things wrong. We do try to get it right. Lieber review and, um, yeah, I guess and the, uh, until time keep it hot mess. by.